Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-06

say that much of the evil of which some
"business sense" and business methods
/ in the conduct of their farms. Where the
farmer gives to his business the same in
telligent economy and attention to detail
and methodical supervision that men in
other vocations do, he makes his farm
pay, and it is such men who, in every
community, are pointed out as ''rich farm
ers," just as certain percentage of law
yers, doctors, merchants, ct al, are
spoken of as "successtul men," There
are merchants, bankers, lawyers and doc
tors who fail to make their business
profitable for identically the same cause
that prevents the farm from paying. Per
haps there is smaller percentage of fail
ures among bankers than among any
other class of men, and this is due to the
fact that banks are operated on co-opera-
tive money, and the owners of that money
are careful to select men who are compe-
tent to handle mOney-to select men who
"know their business" THE GAZETTE
has been informed that a bank will
take mutiJated l cent stamp to
the postofice and exchange it
for perfect stamp as re-
ligiously as it will debit depositor with
the amount of the check he draws. In all
the details OF the management Of banking
the same scrupulous economy is prac-
ticed. But while the banker, who is be-
rated because he is rich, applies the most
rigid methods to his business, the farm
er, who sometimes complains of others
for his misfortunes, will too often pay
hundreds Of dollars for an improved i'm
plement aud take no more care to pre-
serve il from the weather than if it were
imperviOus t. water and heat. Riding
westward from Fort Worth over rail-
road in March last one could see harvest
ers and reapers and ploWs standing out
in fields as if they were no more valuable
than stumps, and doubtless there are in
Tarrant county to-d1y tens of thousands
of dollars worth of such property whose |
condition would materially aid agricul-
tural editors in explaining why farming
does not pay.
Somewhere floating around, THE GA
zETTE read this statement: " Cotton |
is king, snd yet the poultry product of
the United States in 1888 was valued at |
100000, 900, while the cotton crop was
valued at only $40, 100000" We do
not know how much truth there is in this |
statement, but it contains q valuable |
llnt. An old farmer of Denton county
once told THE GAZETTE that he never
vent to town with his wagon without
carrying lot of butter and fowls for
sale. 81 make 'em pay my expenses"
said ne. That old man has town lots in
Dallas and San Antonio bought with the
money he made on Texas farm. He
lad "business sense" THE GAZETTE
lnows nothing about farming, but it does
NOW something about some farmers.and
t is so profoundly impressed with the gen.
raj dependence on the farm and the gener-
Il obligation to the farmers of the land that
t ventures to speak plainly and say to
he farmers of Texas that it is time to in
reduce the business sense of the bank
nd of the store and of the office onto
very farm of the state. And THE GA
ETTE believes that if the same methods
we're applied to the farm that are ap-
lied to the store and to the bank, there
would be less privation, less discomfort,
ess complaint among those upon whose
uccess all success depends. i